Mountainous at the start, flat at the end: that was the profile of the 2nd stage of the Tour de Romandie and on paper was definitely a day for sprinters with an affinity for climbing. But in the end, a hectic race and a five-man breakaway group turned the stage and the overall standings upside down. The stage win was secured after 157 kilometres around La Grande Beroche by Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS - Astana) with a late attack from the escape group.

Second place, two seconds behind, went to Alex Baudin (EF Education - EasyPost) ahead of Junior Lecerf (Soudal - Quick-Step), Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto) and Juan Pedro López (Lidl - Trek). The five escapees now also occupy the first five places in the overall standings: thanks to the time bonus of six seconds for second place, Frenchman Baudin took the yellow jersey, with Lecerf following five seconds behind.

Matthew Brennan falls behind early

The previous leader, Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), lost touch in the early stages of the stage. During the four mountain classifications and 2866 metres of climbing, the Briton was unable to get back into the field. He reached the finish 11:46 minutes behind the winner.

On the last climb of the stage, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick-Step) and initiated a further selection of the group, from which the winner ultimately emerged. Evenpoel reached the finish in a twelve-man chasing group, which also included Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) was 56 seconds behind. Emanuel Buchmann (Cofidis) finished the stage 1:15 minutes behind Fortunato. Alexandr Vlasov (Red Bull - Bora - hansgrohe) was also part of the group - and thus lost valuable time in the overall standings.

Tour de Romandie 2025 - Stage 2 results

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How the 2nd stage of the Tour de Romandie 2025 went

With the start of the stage, the peloton set a high pace with many attacks, from which a five-man lead group eventually formed around Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull - Bora - hansgrohe), Hugh Carthy (EF Education - EasyPost), Julien Bernard (Lidl - Trek), Raúl García (Arkéa - B&B Hotels) and Welay Berhe (Jayco - AlUla). However, the group's maximum lead never exceeded two minutes - also because the race remained extremely hectic in the early stages. Among others, the first two in the overall standings, Matthew Brennan (Visma - Lease a Bike) and Samuel Watson (INEOS Grenadiers), lost touch with the peloton early on. Both finished the stage well behind.

Ben Zwiehoff defends his lead in the mountain classification

With 71 kilometres to go, Carthy and Bernard broke away from the rest of the group and continued their escape as a duo. For Zwiehoff, Garcia and Berhe, the breakaway came to an end a few kilometres later. Zwiehoff, however, won the first two mountain classifications of the day and defended his lead in the mountain classification.

The climb to Chaumont, which was only 3.2 kilometres long but had a brutal average gradient of 11.4 per cent, led to a selection in the peloton 48 kilometres before the finish. Remco Evenepoel went on the offensive there and split the peloton into several groups, which also led to Carthy and Bernard being the last escapees to be caught.

Initially, a group of 15 riders formed at the summit of the climb, from which Junior Lecerf, Alex Baudin and Juan Pedro López broke away on the descent. Shortly afterwards, Lorenzo Fortunato and Lennert Van Eetvelt joined the leading trio.

The group harmonised well afterwards, while there was no unity in the growing chasing group. As a result, the lead grew continuously and was soon over a minute. Fortunato finally took the stage win with an attack at the Flamme Rouge.